Inspiration comes to me in many forms, but there is one particular thing that surfaces as a persistent, daily inspiration that keeps driving me forward in life, business and family.

When I first decided to set up my own business, it was the thought of giving back to the family who have always supported me that struck the biggest motivational chord – the idea of bringing my young family into the world and giving them the best opportunities that I could. This is and will always remain my ‘why’ behind my business and striving to be the best person I can be.

As any business owner with a family would know, it is a delicate balancing act. But there is one quote that helps me to keep it all in focus:

“In business, what you don’t get done today can be done tomorrow. But with family, what doesn’t get done today is gone forever” – Rory Vaden.

We owe it to ourselves and our customers to maintain knowledge and expertise in our field. Whatever field you are in your customers come to you because they think that you are the right person for the job. It is our responsibility to show them that they are right. Taking opportunities for growth and education in business, in our chosen professional field, and in self, is the lifeblood of reaching our potential and proving to our clientele that we are worthy of their investment.

Throughout the year there are opportunities to learn through conferences, webinars, business partner meetings and the like, and this month was filled with it’s fair share for me! It’s been a month jam-packed with learning! I attended the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia annual conference where the the highlight for me was hearing from Chris Helder about ‘Useful Belief’. This was a Key Note speech at the event that coincidentally I had heard once before. It was a concept that had really resonated with me then. This time I took action and bought his book, which is well worth the investment.

Another great resource I’ve been lucky enough to tap into this month was Bankwest’s free online webinars. Did you know that Bankwest regularly hold webinars open to the public on their Facebook page? The content is not specific to banking and it is well worth checking out their Facebook Page for upcoming events. This month they had digital marketing consultant, Teresa Truda, present to a group of small business owners in Perth (and me in my office via the magic of the internet with a cup of tea in my hand) about building your brand online. The Facebook live event is still on their page, check it out here if it is of interest to you, I certainly picked up a variety of helpful tips that I will be implementing!

In addition to these great learning opportunities, there was a Pepper Money Roadshow, NAB product, policy and process education seminar and a time management session at the RateOne head quarters. All in all, I am feeling well and truly on top of my game in business! I wish I could say the same with my home life!

I can’t believe that it has already been a month since we were talking about interest rates potentially coming down in June! Well sure enough it has happened. On the 4th June we saw the RBA lower the cash rate by 0.25% to 1.25% – the lowest ever! Since then, we have seen the banks all respond with their own Standard Variable Rate cuts.

But who passed on the full 0.25% and which lenders passed on a partial drop? Here is a snap shot of some of he main players.

CBA and NAB were the first to come out stating they were passing on the full drop, shortly after the remaining two Big Four banks announced that they were NOT going to pass on the full 25 basis points. Westpac have dropped 0.20% and ANZ 0.18%. Other lenders that have not passed on the full rate cut are: Virgin Money who reduced 0.22%, Suncorp who reduced their rates by 0.20%, Bendigo Bank dropping by 0.20% and MyState with a reduction of 0.20%. The majority of the rest, including ME Bank, Macquarie and ING, all passed on the full rate cut to their customers.

What will the RBA do with rates on Tuesday 2nd July?

Many of the experts and economists are predicting at least one more rate reduction this year, maybe even two. The RBA Governor, Philip Lowe, has come out and said that it was not unreasonable to expect additional rate cuts during 2019 due to a weaker than expected GDP growth. Much of whether the RBA makes further changes will be dependent on the labour market, with unemployment rising from 4.9% in February to reach 5.2% in June. Although this should not be seen as a disaster, some are saying that the RBA will want to keep this in check by taking an aggressive stance on interest rates to stimulate the economy. Cuts in July AND August have been suggested.

What should you do with the saving?

If you have a mortgage, my suggestion is to keep paying the same amount that you are already used to paying before the banks reduced your rate. Don’t just pay the minimum based on the current rate. If the rates go down and you continue to pay the same amount you were before, you can either pay your loan off early, or if you have redraw available on your loan, build up savings for future down-turns or opportunities whilst saving on interest on your mortgage repayments. If you want to know how this works, check out this calculator that shows how an extra monthly repayment affects the loan term, or feel free to reach out to me and I can help you work through the numbers.